Clinicopathologic Evaluation of Immunohistochemical CD147 and MMP-2 Expression in Differentiated Thyroid Carcinoma

OBJECTIVE: CD147 is one of the molecules involved in regulating the expression of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). The goal of this study was to analyze the expression levels of CD147 and MMP-2 in differentiated thyroid carcinomas (DTCs) tissues, as well as their associations with the clinicopathologic features of DTC patients. METHODS: CD147 and MMP-2 expression in 156 patients who underwent operation for DTC (100 with papillary thyroid carcinomas and 56 with follicular thyroid carcinomas) were examined by immunostaining on paraffin-embedded tumor specimens. The Spearman correlation was calculated between the expression levels of CD147 and MMP-2 in DTC tissues. Then, the association of their expression with clinicopathologic characteristics was analyzed. RESULTS: CD147 and MMP-2 were expressed mainly in cancerous lesions, but also expressed in some normal tissues. A total of 55 and 58 in 156 (35.26 and 37.18%, respectively) cases showed low CD147- and MMP-2-positive expression; 52 and 50 in 156 (33.33 and 32.05%, respectively) cases showed intermediate CD147- and MMP-2-positive expression and 49 and 48 in 156 (31.41 and 30.77%, respectively) cases showed high CD147- and MMP-2-positive expression. The Spearman analysis indicated that the expression level of CD147 was positively correlated with that of MMP-2 significantly (rs = 0.86, P = 0.02). Positive CD147 and MMP-2 immunostaining associated significantly with extrathyroidal invasion (P = 0.02, 0.03), lymph node metastasis (P = 0.01, 0.01) and depth of tumor invasion (P < 0.01, =0.01). CONCLUSIONS: The results have been demonstrated that the expression of CD147 and MMP-2 may be an important feature of DTC. The detection of these two markers may increase the ability of clinicians to investigate the progression of DTC patients.